Bioball subsititue?

[joez]

What do you guys use as a substitute for bioballs?

 

[katfish]

I slowly took out all of the bioballs after I had changed to a DSB.
So much easier to maintain levels now

 

[pmauro]

I used styrofoam packing peanuts works great and is cheap.

 

[joez]

cool pmauro...I'll try that

 

[jja]

Just curious-why a substitute?

 

[entice59]

bioballs can trap and hold waste, causing the nitrates to rise, thats if the bioballs havent been cleaned or havent been cleaned frequently

 

[spider crab]

I thought the point of bio balls was to collect bacteria used to filter the water. Wouldn't cleaning them remove the helpful bacteria?
Just wondering. I'm about the setup my first wet dry filter/sump and have never used them before.
The packing peanuts idea sounds interesting. Just make sure you get the styrofoam ones. Alot of them now are made of puffed up corn starch. They are supposed to be better for the environment but would melt in water!

 

[joez]

Who all uses styrofoam as a replacement? How effective is it? I have a bunch here and will try it out...any other suggestions?

 

[tangtang]

Hi Spider!
Why not start out with a refugium in your sump? I wish I had... Now, I'm wondering when I'll get the time to change over from bio balls and what a waste of money... stress on the fish... taking the chance of cycling again...
Linda

 

[jester]

I implimented the bio wheels out of my emporer 400 into my sump. Works awesome and have zero everything.

 

[entice59]

but isnt that a picture of a spray bar shooting water towards the bio wheel?

 

[joez]

For my application I need bioballs or a substitute. I'm going to build a denitrator and inside it needs the medium.

 

[jester]

that's how they rotate. Water sprays on them from the top, and it forces it to turn . Like an old steam ferry wheel.

 

[farlow]

I replaced my bio-balls with small pieces of really porpious live rock, then below that put a 3-4" sand bed, drilled holes in the divider so water could flow through without having to go all the way to the bottom slowing down the rate that goes by the sand.
i got a some pics on
http://abusive.net/gallery Click on Tank pics
-Scott

 

[slick]

Imo bio balls won't get dirty if you use a per filter.

 

[joez]

anyone use lava rock?

 

[entice59]

i didnt know that, its what ive read from websites

 

[foxface402]

I took out my bio balls and replaced it with fully cured live rock. works great you just got to keep to prefilter for max water flow

 

[farlow]

FoxFace,
I do the same thing... Have you thought about using a bio-bag to pre-filter as well? I mean beyond the spong in the overflow maybe a biobag would catch more stuff, and it's an inexpensive add to the filter.
-Scott
http://abusive.net/gallery - Click on Tank pics

 

[jja]

I just figuered between the sponge in the filter and the pad in the wet/dry everything would be o.k. I have been running it this way for a year and a half and have had no diseases or fish lost due to my water. Only fish loss was to bullies.